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AMEL EMRIC/AP
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HIDDEN: The Saudi government has long allowed radical imams to preach extreme intolerance |
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| The Enemy Within |
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After years of tolerating Islamic extremism, Saudi royals now find themselves in al-Qaeda's crosshairs |
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By SCOTT MACLEOD | Riyadh |
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Posted Sunday, May 18, 2003; 13.05BST
Judging from its initial response to the deadliest terrorist operation in the kingdom's history, the government seems more disposed than ever to join the all-out war against terrorism, the way that the U.S. was driven into the all-out war against fascism by the Japanese attack in 1941. Less than 24 hours after the blasts tore through the desert capital of his family's dynasty, Crown Prince Abdullah delivered an unprecedented television speech in which he condemned the terrorists as "butchers and criminals." Abdullah indicated that Saudi fundamentalists who tried to justify the bombings in the name of Islam would be treated as terrorists, too. Some of Abdullah's fellow princes approvingly compared his warning to Bush's famous line after 9/11, "You're either with us, or against us."
The President of the United States and the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia belong to a mutual admiration society. Each time U.S. Ambassador Robert Jordan meets with Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al Saud, the prince always warmly asks about Bush's health. Yet when Jordan asked the Saudis for help recently, he got a brush-off. In April, U.S. intelligence picked up strong signals that major terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda against Americans in Saudi Arabia were in the works. In three separate letters to Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef — dated April 29, May 7 and May 10 — Jordan requested more security at residential compounds housing U.S. expatriates, only to recoil in anguish when terrorists struck with deadly force last week. Despite the good chemistry between the leaders, the Saudis could not — or, worse, would not — do everything possible to prevent Saudi extremists from murdering innocent people in cold blood.
The terrorists orchestrated attacks so brazen that they rattled the windows of Riyadh's royal palaces, and that fact alone shows that the Saudis have failed to fully grasp the threat that Islamic extremism poses to the world — including, now more obviously than ever, to Saudi Arabia and its rulers. To some U.S. officials, the Saudis' glaring lack of vigilance is part of a disturbing pattern that has seen the Saudis encouraging or appeasing Islamic militants, or else pretending that they do not exist. A decade ago, when Osama bin Laden returned home from Afghanistan spouting criticism of the Al Saud regime, the Saudi solution was to cancel his citizenship and send him away. Heads remained buried in the sand even after 15 Saudi terrorists formed the majority of the Sept. 11 hijackers.
Last week's attacks may finally change all that. Or so U.S. officials and many Saudis are hoping. "If this was not the Saudis' Sept. 11," Ambassador Jordan said after viewing the carnage in Riyadh, "it was certainly the Saudis' Pearl Harbor."
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